_August 14th_.--I went with M. Plasson, a very intelligent Frenchman, to whom I am indebted for a good deal of information about this country, to the museum, which I had seen in a hurried way, on my first visit to Rio. It is greatly improved since I was here, both externally and internally. The minerals of the country form the richest part of the collection. The diamonds, both colourless and black, surpass any thing I have seen; but I believe the crystals of gold to be the most precious articles here: there are several pieces of native gold, weighing three or four ounces; and some beautiful specimens of silver, as fine and as delicate as a lady's aigrette. I confess that the fine coloured copper, and the beautiful grained iron, pleased me as well as most things: some of the latter specimens yield 99 parts of iron. These are from the mines of St. Paul's, and I was shown some specimens of coal, as fine as Scotch coal, that has been recently discovered in the immediate neighbourhood of those very mines. The amethysts, topazes, quartzes of all colours, are innumerable: there are beautiful jaspers with veins of gold, and all manner of gorgeous works of nature, fit for Aladdin's cave, and the insects, especially the butterflies, fit to flit about in it. But the other branches of natural history are not rich here. Of birds there are few of note, beyond a splendid set of toucans; and of quadrupeds, a few monkies, two fawns like the roe-deer[117], and some very curious armadillos, are all I remember. The collection of Indian weapons and dresses is incomplete, and wants arrangement: this is a pity; for by-and-by, as the wild natives adopt civilised habits, these will be unattainable. The African curiosities are scarcely better kept, but some of them are very curious in their kind. One very remarkable one is a king's dress made of ox-gut, not in the state _le valliant des cubes_, but carefully cleaned and dried, as we do bladders. It is then split longitudinally, and the pieces sewed together, each seam being set with tufts or rather fringes of purple feathers; so that the vest is light, impervious to rain, and highly ornamental from its rich purple stripes. There is another entirely of rich Mazarine blue feathers; a sceptre most ingeniously wrought of scarlet feathers; and a cap of bark, with a long projecting beak in front, and a quantity of coloured feathers and hair behind, ornamented with beads. Besides all these things, there is the throne of an African prince of wood, beautifully carved. I could wish, since the situation of Brazil is so favourable for collecting African costume, that there were a room appropriated to these things, as they are curious in the history of man. [Note 117: I have eaten of the venison, and it is like roe-deer.]